David Paule
Well Known Member
I got one of these this year for my non-RV.
It's easy to use and pushes the C180 around with plenty of power. My hangar has about a 1" lip at the door, and dragging the 6:00-6 main wheels (small for a C180) over that has been a real pain. This makes it easy. All I have to do is stand back and keep an eye on things while the tug does the work. Since it's remotely controlled (it's basically a large kit's toy) I can be anywhere around the plane to make sure it doesn't hit anything.
It has excellent speed control, including a high speed and a low speed "gear." The low speed is as fast as I care to walk while the plane is moving. Once in the open, sometimes it's convenient to flip the toggle into fast mode.
Since the C180 is about the weight of an RV-10, this thing would push that, too. But you'd have to check that their RV-10 version was ready, just to make sure that the nose wheel fairing didn't get damaged. They have versions for both nose and tailwheel airplanes, but most of the planes they show are certified - not all of them, though.
They have a page of videos.
Incidentally, they recommended that I get a smaller model for my plane, until I explained about the lip at the front of the hangar. This model is plenty good and might even be overkill.
They recommend keeping it on charge all the time, letting the battery managers handle that. So far, I haven't come close to running the batteries out.
I used to push the plane around by hand. As I got older and flew less, that got harder and harder to do. That hangar lip became a real pain for me.
Bottom line - it's a bit expensive but makes a hard job go easily. If it has any downside other than the cost, it's that it's not really practical to take with me. It's physically big and heavy.
Dave
It's easy to use and pushes the C180 around with plenty of power. My hangar has about a 1" lip at the door, and dragging the 6:00-6 main wheels (small for a C180) over that has been a real pain. This makes it easy. All I have to do is stand back and keep an eye on things while the tug does the work. Since it's remotely controlled (it's basically a large kit's toy) I can be anywhere around the plane to make sure it doesn't hit anything.
It has excellent speed control, including a high speed and a low speed "gear." The low speed is as fast as I care to walk while the plane is moving. Once in the open, sometimes it's convenient to flip the toggle into fast mode.
Since the C180 is about the weight of an RV-10, this thing would push that, too. But you'd have to check that their RV-10 version was ready, just to make sure that the nose wheel fairing didn't get damaged. They have versions for both nose and tailwheel airplanes, but most of the planes they show are certified - not all of them, though.
They have a page of videos.
Incidentally, they recommended that I get a smaller model for my plane, until I explained about the lip at the front of the hangar. This model is plenty good and might even be overkill.
They recommend keeping it on charge all the time, letting the battery managers handle that. So far, I haven't come close to running the batteries out.
I used to push the plane around by hand. As I got older and flew less, that got harder and harder to do. That hangar lip became a real pain for me.
Bottom line - it's a bit expensive but makes a hard job go easily. If it has any downside other than the cost, it's that it's not really practical to take with me. It's physically big and heavy.
Dave